Trip to Tokyo 2025 Part 3
On the last leg of our trip, we stayed in the Tokyo Bay area. We hadn’t stayed here before, but I had seen a video of the delicious seafood breakfast buffet of this hotel, the La Vista Tokyo Bay, and thought you know what, let’s check out this area. It’s only for 2 nights, and it’s super close to Toyosu Market, Odaiba, Lalaport and a lot of kid-friendly malls, so we decided to do it.
It’s about a 20 minute taxi drive from Tokyo Station, and because we had forwarded our luggage, it was already there waiting for us! Instantly, we were amazed at how nice it looked. It was right by the water, and there’s a “seawall” where people could run around. So awesome! I had also booked a “quad” room, which meant there were 4 twin beds. It made our room a little bit more spacious which is perfect for us as a family of 4. While it didn’t have a full kitchen, it had a seating area and a small table as well.
Since we had just gotten back from Hakone, our plan actually was to have some time with just me and Clement, while the kids hang out with MIL and aunt because it was their last night there.
The downside of staying in Tokyo Bay is that it is quite far from everywhere else, even by train. The trains are more infrequent and there’s less connections, so even going to Shinjuku was around 50 mins by train. We took a taxi, thinking it’ll be faster, but actually it took about as long as well because we got hit with tons of traffic.
Nevertheless, we headed to Shinjuku cause Clement still wanted to go to his all-time favorite, Fuunji. We came here on our very first trip to Japan and have never missed it since! The OG chefs/assistants aren’t there anymore in the main location, but was still as delicious as we remembered. Now, they have another location closer to where we were at Tokyo Station. Maybe cause of that, but we didn’t have to line up long at all, it was maybe just 2-3 people ahead of us.
After dinner, we headed to Yodobashi camera in Shinjuku to look around. It’s rather confusing because this Yodobashi has multiple buildings vs. floors, so you kinda have to walk around to see. But still amazing to go around this area. There’s gashapon, toy cars, gundam, trains, every hobbyist really needs to check it out.
The next morning
We enjoyed a delicious seafood buffet at the La Vista Tokyo Bay, the hotel we were staying at. I loved all the options, particularly having a bowl just full of ikura right on top. I love that my kids love eating ikura too, especially Jasiel!
Then, we headed over across the passenger bridge (so cool that all the buildings were interconnected), to the Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai, which is like an extension of the Toyosu Market, filled with tons of restaurants that serve fresh seafood. It has edo-period vibes, definitely created for the tourist market so the prices are elevated, but still convenient because the lines aren’t as long as Tsukiji and it’s a lot cleaner and manageable as well. Upstairs, there’s a food court with a small play area that we ate dinner at that night. There was a samurai / ninja demonstration that the kids were very fascinated about. We had just eaten a big breakfast so we weren’t hungry, but they wanted to eat strawberries, which we happily obliged.
Right after this, we headed to Clement’s heaven, a.k.a A Pit Autobacs. We’ve been going to this big autobacs store since we first went to Japan, but they renovated it last time we came so it now has a Starbucks, a bookstore, so it was nice to have some place to sit down and eat while Clement was happily shopping. I mean, there’s also a lot of merch here, toy cars, collectibles, aside from the actual car parts. It is really fun to check out though!
After Clement decided what he wanted to get, we decided to head to Odaiba for lunch, and also cause Chase wanted to look around at Toys R Us. Odaiba is really close to Shinonome, so we headed that way. We were supposed to check out other malls aside from Aqua City, but we ended up sticking with our normal mall to visit. They have a couple of fun stores there to visit for the kids - Toys R Us, C-pla, Flying Tiger Copenhagen, Disney Store, Micro (which is Jasiel’s brand of scooters - so random they had a brand store there), even a petting zoo kind of store. If you have pets, there’s tons of pet stores in this mall! I missed seeing this, they also had a Nitori express, which is like an Ikea store for them.
We had a quick bite at the food court, which was easy and yummy. We stumbled upon a Cinnamoroll event as well, which we thought was so cute! I also got to buy Jasiel some Ifme shoes - a Japanese brand of shoes for toddlers/kids that have flexible soles. Also picked up a yukata for her, which she was really excited about. Just look at her cute smile!
And as I mentioned for dinner we headed back to the Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai. The food court had a lot of options (some of the restaurants are closed for dinner), and it was really nice and quiet. The kids happily played while we ordered food and ate, and then when they were ready they came to eat with us. Then we finished our evening with delicious ice cream, and we headed back to the hotel to pack (huhuhu!).
last day in tokyo
Our flight back was late in the evening, so we stayed at the hotel until we had to check out. Thankfully, they are able to hold our luggage until our shuttle pickup time. We decided to check out Lalaport Toyosu this time, which is a really big mall close by. There’s Toyosu park outside, where the kids had so much fun in the playgrounds. Lalaport is also the mall with Kidzania, this amusement park where kids can try out different jobs. They also have Akachan Honpo there, which is a big baby-toddler store. I love that there were so many stores for kids shoes, and even had a foot analysis thing for kids. Of course, Jasiel couldn’t even stand still for 2 seconds. The food court in this mall was huge! There were so many food options. Because it’s a kid-friendly mall, the food court also had a kids sitting area, complete with water stations (cold and warm for formula). Jasiel was so excited to see the Sesame Street Market store there too!
After hanging out in the mall, we headed back to the hotel where we had booked a private shuttle to bring us to the airport. This was our first time flying out of Haneda airport, and I personally think it’s more fun here than Narita airport. The food options were great - from ramen to sukiyaki to fast food and onigiris - there’s something for everyone. And we bought all our souvenir snacks at the airport so that we didn’t have to fit it into our luggage. The flight back was at almost 10PM, so by the time we got on the plane, the kids pretty much passed out and slept most of the flight back. I just woke them up close to arrival so they could eat something.
Even though we’ve been to Japan so many times already, we honestly aren’t tired of it at all. We are thinking of bringing the kids to another area in Japan next time. It’s so convenient with many food options, there’s convenience stores and supermarkets, people are so accommodating even when we have the kids. Can’t wait to go back!